Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the country is going through a period of rapid transformation. Inaugurating Destination Uttarakhand: Summit 2018 in Dehradun today, he said, the world has accepted that India will be a major engine of global growth in the coming decades.

Mr. Modi said, speed and scale of economic reforms in the country is unprecedented. The Prime Minister said, India has improved by 42 ranks in the Ease of Doing business rankings. He said, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code has made doing business easier. Mr. Modi said, the implementation of GST is the biggest tax reform since independence.

Highlighting his government’s performance during the last 4 years, Mr Modi said, fiscal deficit has come down and inflation has been brought under control by the efforts of the government.

The Prime Minister said that the infrastructure sector is progressing rapidly. He spoke of the fast pace of road construction, railway line construction, new metro systems, high speed rail project, and dedicated freight corridors. He said, the recently launched Ayushman Bharat scheme will spur the development of medical infrastructure in the tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

The Prime Minister said that New India is a great destination for investment, and “Destination Uttarakhand” represents this spirit. Mr. Modi spoke of initiatives being taken in the food processing and renewable energy sectors. He also mentioned the achievements of the “Make in India” initiative.

enate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., delivered a message "to so many millions who are outraged by what happened here . . . vote."

Kavanaugh heads to the Supreme Court significantly scarred from the confirmation fight, which had the echoes of the 1991 battle over now-Justice Clarence Thomas who was accused of sexual harassment by law professor Anita Hill and defended himself in an emotional, high-stakes congressional hearing.

Already, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. has received more than a dozen complaints of judicial misconduct against Kavanaugh but is not referring them for investigation for the time being. And in a joint appearance on Friday night at Princeton University, their shared alma mater, Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor raised concerns about how the bitter partisan battle over Kavanaugh will affect the court's reputation.

"We have to rise above partisanship in our personal relationships," said Sotomayor, who was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2009. "We have to treat each other with respect and dignity and with a sense of amicability that the rest of the world doesn't often share."

The tension surrounding Kavanaugh's nomination continued until the final minutes in the packed Senate chamber, where several protesters were escorted out after disrupting the vote, during which Vice President Mike Pence presided. Over shouts of "Shame! Shame! Shame!" and screams of "I do not consent!" each senator stood at his or her desk to vote - a move generally reserved for historic roll calls.

Eminent Gandhian Natwar Thakkar, popularly known as ‘Nagaland’s Gandhi’, died in a private hospital here on Sunday after a brief illness, family sources said.

He was 86 and is survived by his wife Lentina Ao, a son and two daughters.

He was admitted to the hospital here on September 19 after his health condition deteriorated.

His condition improved considerably but suddenly his blood pressure started dropping, and later, the kidneys failed, his son Dr. Aotoshi said.

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San Francisco: Apple displaced Google to become the top brand in the world in 2018 while Facebook fell to ninth place in the top 100 brands globally.

According to global brand consultancy Interbrand's "Best 100 Global Brands 2018" report, Amazon achieved a 56 per cent growth to become the third top brand globally. According to the ranking, Apple's brand value grew 16 per cent (year-on-year) to $214.5 billion. It went on to become the first company in the US to hit the $1 trillion market cap.

"In second place, Google was up 10 per cent to $155.5 billion while Amazon is valued at $100.8 billion," campaignlive.co.uk reported, citing the report findings.

Microsoft (valued at $92.7 billion) was fourth while Coca Cola (valued at $66.3 billion) came fifth followed by Samsung on sixth spot. Facebook's brand value has declined 6 per cent this year in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
"A decade after the global financial crisis, the brands that are growing fastest are those that

National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) Managing Director and CEO Vikram Limaye has been appointed as Chairman of the Working Committee (WoCo) and Director on the Board of the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE).

According to a NSE statement on Wednesday, the appointment was made at the 58th General Assembly and Annual Meeting of WEF in Athens, Greece.

Established in 1961, the WFE is the global industry association for exchanges and clearing houses. Headquartered in London, it represents over 200 market infrastructure providers, including standalone CCPs (Central Counterparties) that are not part of exchange groups.

To promote innovative cooperation between students of India and Russia, a Memorandum of Understanding was exchanged between India’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and the Russian Federation’s SIRIUS Educational Foundation in the presence of the Prime Minister of India Shri. Narendra Modi and the President of Russia H.E. Vladimir Putin, in New Delhi on 5th October 2018. The AIM and SIRUS Education Foundation were represented by Mission Director Shri. R Ramanan and Ms. Elena Shmeleva respectively.

The MoU hopes to remove cultural and language barriers between students of Russia and India, share the best practices in the promotion of educational, scientific, innovative achievements, promote innovative cooperation, and search and develop talented youth of both countries fostering a knowledge driven innovation ecosystem in both the countries.

“The Atal Innovation Mission continues to grow steadily in its effort to spread the joy of innovation throughout the country. This MoU with SIRIUS Educational Foundation is a step in the right direction. International collaboration will broaden our students’ minds, deepen curiosities, and sharpen their intellect”, said Mr. Ramanan.

As many as 21 countries in the Indian Ocean Rim Association, IORA, adopted the Delhi Declaration on Renewable Energy in the Indian Ocean Region.

These nations adopted the Delhi Declaration post the second IORA Renewable Energy Ministerial Meeting held in Greater Noida, near Delhi.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy yesterday said that the Delhi Declaration calls for collaboration among IORA member states in meeting the growing demand for renewable energy in the Indian Ocean littorals.

It also calls for the development of a common renewable energy agenda for the Indian Ocean region and the promotion of regional capacity building.

The Google Doodle on Saturday, October 6, 2018, celebrates the start of the 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games to be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. With over 200 countries taking part, the event marks the start of young athletes’ career before they go on to bigger and better things. The event will see thousands of athletes, aged 15-18, compete in various categories.

500 households inside the Assam Petro Complex will be the first pilot project, scaling it to 40,000 households in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Telangana, Goa and Karnataka. The project is a natural extension of our Prime Minister's vision of reducing import of crude and an effort to provide clean, import substitute, cost effective and pollution free cooking medium. Assam Petrochemicals Limited has been manufacturing methanol for the last 30 years and is in the process of upgrading their 100 TPD methanol plant to 600 TPD by Dec 2019.

The safe handling cannister based cooking stoves are from Swedish Technology and through a Technology transfer a large-scale cooking stove manufacturing plant will come up in India in the next 18 months producing 10 lakh Cookstoves and 1 Crore Cannisters per year. This technology is very unique, it handles methanol extremely safely, does not need regulator or any piping system.

The cooking medium can directly substitute LPG, Kerosene, Wood, Charcoal and any other fuel for cooking. The gaseous form, Methanol - DME, can be blended in 20% ratio with LPG. LPG-DME blending program is expected to kickstart in the country by next year.

NEW DELHI: Pankaj Sharma has been appointed as the ambassador and India's permanent representative to the United Nations Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, an official statement said.
Mr Sharma is currently the joint secretary (Disarmament and International Security Division) in the Ministry of External Affairs.

He will replace Amandeep Gill.